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Mellon Family Billionaire Leaves Large Legacy To Brandywine Conservancy

By  John Ostapkovich

CHADDS FORD, Pa. (CBS) -- A suburban Philadelphia art and land organization has been named in the will of a western Pennsylvania billionaire in one way that's easy to add up, and two others that are not.

The estate of Richard Mellon Scaife is giving the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art, in Chadds Ford, $15 million, plus about half his art collection and a 900-acre estate in western Pennsylvania.

Conservancy and museum executive director Virginia Logan says she is saddened by the death on July 4th of Scaife, 82, and touched that the longtime trustee has benefited the group with a final act of generosity.

"The artwork will be a tremendous addition to our collection at the Brandywine River Museum of Art," she tells KYW Newsradio.  "You know, we present American art, and I'm eager to learn more of the specifics, but his collection is primarily American art."

Logan says the land is a little far from the Brandywine Valley but it already has staff, and complements the 59,000 acres the conservancy has already protected.

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